Special Teams Coordinator Tom Quinn

Special Teams Coordinator Tom Quinn on what he's looking at going into Week 2 against the Buccanners

Q: How’d you feel about your performance in Week 1?A: We did some good things, but not enough good things, not enough momentum-changing plays. We had some opportunities. I thought we could’ve gotten more out of the kickoff return right before the half, could’ve had a plus-10 down, could’ve had a tackle inside the 15, but we weren’t physical enough. It was solid, but it wasn’t real good.

Q: What’s the reason for having Domenik Hixon return punts?A: Experience, left-footed punter played an issue in that, because the ball does spin a little bit differently for those guys. Those were the two factors.

Q: Is this week a right-footed punter?A: Yeah.

Q: Will you make a change?A: We’ve got three guys we feel good with right now. How much they’re being used on offense and defense all plays into it.

Q: Are you guys starting to click on the coverage teams?A: Every season is a new season because you have new guys.

Q: You do have some familiar faces out there.A: Some. There are new guys. Making sure they know how we want to cover kicks, you don’t know until you get four to six games in, until you get really tested, you know? We’ll see.

Q: Has Jacquian Williams been as valuable as he was last season?A: He has, but he’s missed a lot of practice time in training camp. Still knocking some of the rust off, and some of the things we’re doing, and how we’re doing it. He’s coming along well.

Q: Is it his athleticism?A: Yeah, he’s got speed and power, which is a good combination to have. He really studies the game hard, which is the other factor that I love about him.

Q: Have you seen anything about the backup long snapper woes?A: Yeah, well Chicago had it, and Washington’s guy broke his arm but he kept snapping.

Q: Are you comfortable with your backup?A: Chase (Blackburn), Cordle, and Herzlich; we’re trying to train as many guys as we can. We fell in this situation last year where we almost had to use Herzlich for one game, and we did have to use Jimmy (Cordle) for three snaps against Seattle. It’s not a great situation to be in, it’s tough. You just have to try and prepare the guys, and hope they’re active, because if they’re not active…It’s hard to carry a second long snapper, but you try and build it through the offseason, I’m sure every team is doing the same thing. We’re giving those guys a little extra work this week.